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that he would be sure to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life,
which, from its prominent position “ in the midst of the garden,”
would naturally attract his attention. Like the sacred Soma-
tree of the Hindus, the Tree of Life probably yielded heavenly
ambrosia, and supplied to Adam food that invigorated and refreshed
him with its immortal sustenance. So long as he remained in
obedience, he was privileged to partake of this glorious food ; but
when, yielding to E v e ’s solicitations, he disobeyed the Divine
command, and partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, he
found it had given to him the knowledge of evil—something of
which he had hitherto been in happy ignorance. He had sinned ;
he was no longer fit to taste the immortal ambrosia of the Tree
of Life ; he was, therefore, driven forth from Eden, and lest he
should be tempted once again to return and partake of the glorious
fruit of the immortalising tree, God “ placed at the east of the
Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned
every way, to keep the way of the Tree of L ife .” Henceforth the
immortal food was lost to man: he could no longer partake of
that mystic fruit which bestowed life and health. Dr. Wild is
of opinion that the Tree of Knowledge stood on Mount Zion,
the spot afterwards selected by the Almighty for the erection of the
Temple ; because, through the Shechinah, men could there obtain
knowledge of good and evil.
Some have claimed that the Banana, the Musa paradisiaca, was
the Tree of Life, and that another species of the tree, the Musa
sapientum, was the Tree of Knowledge; others consider that the
Indian sacred Fig-tree, the Ficus religiosa, the Hindu world-tree,
was the Tree of Life which grew in the middle of Eden ; and the
Bible itself contains internal evidence supporting this idea. In
Gen. iii. 8, we read that Adam and Eve, conscious of having
sinned, “ hid themselves from the presence of the Lord Goc
amongst the trees of the garden.” Dr. Wright, however, in his
Commentary, remarks that, in the original, the word rendered
“ trees ” is singular—“ in the midst of the tree of the garden
consequently, we may infer that Adam and Eve, frightened by the
knowledge of their sin, sought the shelter of the Tree of Life the
tree in the centre of the garden ; the tree which, if it were the
Ficus religiosa, would, by its gigantic stature, and the grove-like
nature of its growth, afford them agreeable shelter, and prove a
favourite retreat. Beneath the shade of this stupendous Fig-tree,
the emng pair reflected upon their lost innocence; and in their
conscious shame, plucked the ample foliage of the tree, and made
themselves girdles of Fig-leaves. Here they remained hidden
beneath the network of boughs which drooped almost to the earth,
and thus formed a natural thicket within which they sought to hide
themselves from an angry God.
“ A pillared shade
High over-arched, with echoing walks between. ■Milton.
URe U r e e o f J^riocofec^ge of*€j|ooiL. a l^ Q'S'if,
The Tree of Knowledge, in the opinion of some commentators,
was so called, not because of any supernatural power it possessed
of inspiring those who might eat of it with universal knowledge, as
the serpent afterwards suggested, but because by Adam and Eve
abstaining from or eating of it after it was prohibited, God would see
whether they would prove good or evil in their state of probation.
The tradition generally accepted as to the fruit which the
serpent tempted E v e to eat, fixes it as the Apple, but there is no
evidence in the Bible that the Tree of Knowledge was an Apple-
tree, unless the remark, “ I raised thee up under the Apple-tree,”
to be found in Canticles viii., 5, be held to apply to our first parents.
Eve is stated to have plucked the forbidden fruit because she saw
that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that
the tree which bore it was “ to be desired to make one wise.”
According to an Indian legend, it was the fruit of the Banana
tree {Musa paradisiaca or M. sapientum) that proved so fatal to Adam
and Eve. We read in Gerarde’s ‘ Herbal,’ that “ the Grecians and
Christians which inhabit Syria, and the Jewes also, suppose it to be
that tree of whose fruit Adam did taste.” Gerarde himself calls
it “ Adam’s Apple-tree,” and remarks of the fruit, that “ if it be
cut according to the length oblique, transverse, or any other way
whatsoever, may be seen the shape and forme of a crosse, with a
man fastened thereto. My selfe have scene the fruit, and cut it in
pieces, which was brought me from Aleppo, in pickle ; the crosse,
I might perceive, as the forme of a spred-egle in the root of Feme,
but the man I leave to be sought for by those which have better
eies and judgement than my selfe.” Sir John Mandeville gives a
similar account of the cross in the Flantain or “ Apple of Faradise.”
In a work by Léon, called ‘ Africa,’ it is stated that the Banana is
in that country generally identified with the Tree of Adam. “ The
Mahometan priests say that this fruit is that which God forbade
Adam and E v e to eat ; for immediately they eat they perceived
their nakedness, and to cover themselves employed the leaves of
this tree, which are more suitable tor the purpose than any other.”
To this day the Indian Djainas are by their laws forbidden to eat
either Bananas or Figs. Vincenzo, a Roman missionary of the
seventeenth century, after stating that the Banana fruit in Fhoenicia
bears the effigy of the Crucifixion, tells us that the Christians of
those parts would not on any account cut it with a knife, but always
broke it with their hands. This Banana, he adds, grows near
Damascus, and they call it there “ Adam’s F ig Tree.” In the
Canaries, at the present time, Banana fruit is never cut across with
a knife, because it then exhibits a representation of the Crucifixion.
In the island of Ceylon there is a legend that Adam once had a
fruit garden in the vicinity of the torrent of Seetagunga, on the
way to the Feak. Fridham, in his history of the island, tells us